Review of The Book of Amazing Stories

It was a needless battle. “Don’t go there,” they warned. At least, if he could have listened to future generations or the mamas of the boys that were about to lie dead on the fields of Gettysburg, that’s what he’d have heard echoing backwards through time.

But General Lee didn’t have Ken Burns to tell him how Pickett’s charge would break the heart of the Confederacy. He didn’t know his campaign to win England’s support would forever prevent them from supporting him.

But his story can teach us a lesson about fighting needless battles.

When China discovered this naturally sweet plant, their mad zeal to cultivate it led them to inadvertently mutilate their native soil. The result was famine and suffering that eventually opened the door to the terror of Mao.

Their story can teach us a lesson about the power of small potatoes to cripple a superpower.

This devil-or-angel blonde sweetheart grew up used and abused. She found passion in the arms of a major leaguer, a playwright, and a president, but all she wanted was to be loved for herself. Her last words were a desperate call to a friend bemoaning her aching lack of love before she dropped the phone and gulped enough barbiturates to prove her pain the next morning when they found her dead body.

From the pen of a master storyteller like Dr. Bob Petterson, this heartbreaker’s heartbreaking story can teach us a lesson about how we need never die alone and unloved, thanks to the One who died alone in our stead two thousand years ago, was buried, and according to Scripture rose again three days later to give us life and love.

The Book of Amazing Stories is just that. Amazing. Short, sweet, and to the point, with incredible insight how each stunning story applies to my life today. Each story is less than three small pages, yet each packs a punch I won’t forget soon.

This is one of those books you don’t loan out without knowing you have a backup copy on your secret shelf. You don’t want to lose it. It’s gold.

If you ever cried at a Paul Harvey story, or even when Paul Harvey finished his last story, get ready. Paul Harvey would have wept to read this book.

Want to know the rest of the stories? Get this book.

I ‘preciate it, and good night.

Much thanks to Tyndale for providing this book free in exchange for my honest review.

All photographs used in this post were in the public domain or created before 1923. Design work in the feature image and the China image were by Isaiah 53 Design (yours truly:).